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M+B=E2O2
Monday, July 31, 2006
I can't think of a title
OK, I am alive. We are alive and well. Hot, sticky, often a bit grumpy, but here we are. I can't get over the heat we've had lately. I am soooo glad we are not in LA this summer, but really the ocean has not offered up its cool breeze during the day. It is starting to really cool down now at night but the last few weeks even the nights had a humid sticky feel. So what have we been doing?
Playing in the backyard a lot, spinklers, blow up pool, blow up slide, slip and slide, watching movies, hanging out. I've been working on our garage, trying to empty it of boxes from the move. I am almost done with it. The Rescue Mission is coming Friday to pick up a bunch of our give away stuff, once that is gone there will me a nice chucnk of space opened on one wall. We also used to get water delivered but not any more, but I have 9 empty water bottles in my garage waiteng to get picked up- that will clear up a nice space too.
We went to a Dodger game last week, I took Emma, Owen and thier cousin Paublo. Emma and Owen got to particpate in a pregame gymnastics show. We did it last year too, it was very cool. I was really worried aobut the heat- I figured we'd be baking up in the stands, but it wan to at all bad. the place it was yucky was when you went up to the consessions area- then it was hot and sticky. Here's a few more pics of the kids. Last year Emma was only able to handle the first 3 innings- then it got to be to loud for her. WE made it to 7 innings this time. What I figured out was that it is not the loud noise of the croud- she was totally into all the cheering and yelling. but what she does not like (and last year the first time they did it was in the 3rd inning, this year it wasn't until about the 5th or so), is the horns that preceed the word "CHARGE!" You know da da da dant da dant (am I a musical genius or what!??) She was a trooper through ti though and while she didn't like that particular sound, she didn't freak out about it and was happy enough to stay an dwatch some more. But we we getting tired and the drive home was about an hour so inning 7 was as good as any to go. I am looking forward to taking Evan to a game next year- he is such a sport nut. I've never liked watching basseball on TV, love playing it, and now I am definately a fan of going to a game. such a good time.
Owen is teaching himself how to read and write. in this last week he has taken a huge interest in writing words. The slip and slide we have is a Star Wars one, he copied "star Wars" and now writes it every chance he gets. He also figured out the "at" words, Sat, hat, bat, cat etc. so he writes thme every chance he can as well. At my moms today he was writing them out on the sidewalk , he wrote the word "fat" them startied giggling and calls out "mom, I wrote 'fat but' he figured out how to spell "but" on his own- I decided not to tell him at this time that the "but" he is thinking of has two t's. Later at home he was showing off for daddy and spelled all his words on our dry erase board and he saw one of his toy guns and figured out how to spell gun- based on his 'but' discovery. Emma wants to be able to spell too, but she hasn't quite grasped the concpts that Owne has. But (heheh I said but)she is really not far behind him- funny how one kid sparks the other's interest.
Ok, I do have more to say, but (heheheh) It is late and I need to sleep. I'll try to write again soon! 11 days without blogging- bad blogger- I hope to get back into the swing of tings someday.
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Thursday, July 20, 2006
Another site to check out
The blog is called The Shape of a Mother . What a great blog! Real women, real mothers, real saggy bellys! Be warned that there are some bellys with um baby feeders(guess I can't use the boo wihth another b word here hehehe!)- so you mighn't want to view this at work!! 
I do have homeschool-ish stuff to say too- but I'll do a separate entry for that. Maybe tonight- but prolly not!
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Friday, July 14, 2006
WoW!
Ok you MUST go check this out! Until AUgust 4th (I think) there is a world ebok fair going on where you can download bazillions of ebooks in PDF format, and they have an MP3 collection! I have about 15 tabs open right now that I am going to browse through- scicence collections, religion, classic lit, childrens lit. My oh my how fun will this be!!!
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Saturday, July 8, 2006
Sick and tired
I have had an awful head cold for the last 5 days. It came on slow and strong. I think Owen may be getting it now. It, unfortunatly, coinsided with Ben starting his new job. His new job with long hours. Very bad timing indeed! I *think* I may be getting better- but it's hard to say. Olivia has decided to wake several times at night these last 3 nights too- really fun.
We got some of our amazon order a couple of days ago. The kids got thier game- I really like it. it is called Blokus. It is a very cool game- I definately reccomend it. The kids like to play with it and just fit the pieces together in patterns and stuff- I can see a number of concepts being learned from it. Ben & I played a game last night after the kids went to bed (and then I went to bed too!)
I got and started reading one of the two books I ordered. I was really excited to get it- but I have to say it is not really all I hoped it would be. It is called The Unprocessed Child - Living Without School. Since I consided us to be a sort of unschooling type family for now- I was very excited to read the tale of one successful unschooling family. The term radical unschooling just barely describes them. I'd say they unparent, undiscipline and un just about all things in life. One thing I really dislike is when someone makes blanket statements about groups or situations. I will grant that in life there are many generalizations that can be made. But even if a generalization is true 99% of the time- I try- really try to not use words such as aways or never. If I do I tend to add in a disclaimer. The problem I am having with this book- with this mom/author is that so far in each chapter she makes a blanket stament about parents, parenting, children or whatever. She has taken her one expierence with her one and only child and makes claims about all children and parenting. What she did worked for her, worked for her girl. I wonder how it would have worked had they had more than one child. (My assumption is that they did not since they never speak of any other children). Or I wonder how things would have worked if she had had a boy. I am about half way throughthe book, but it keeps making me a bit frustrated so I don't really jump back into it with joy- but I will finish it.
I got my other book in the mail today How Children Fail It is foing to be hard for me to not start reading that one- until I finish the other one. I just fear I"ll never finish the other and I am really curious about how the girls life was- and they do take you through that.
Well there are many things I want to blog about- our corn is over a foot tall, we planted more beans to make up for the ones the snails ate, our lettuce and tomatoes are coming in, we got a cool new swing in the backyard, oh lots of things I have blogged in my head about this last week that I just haven't gotten here to put it down, and now I am going to head off to bed so yet again I won't get to share it all! I can not wait for this darn cold to leave my body. BTW I started this post Saturday- it is now Monday- day 7 of feeling like crap, hardly able to swallow. *sigh* oh and Evan seems to be getting sick now too........
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Sunday, July 2, 2006
The hunt is on!
So Ben and I were watiching a movie last night (The Family Stone), it was nearly over and getting late when in the dim light I happened to look toward the far wall. Running along the wall right into our bathroom was a mouse. A little grey mouse. Bleck! So we trapped it in the bathroom and after several minutes of trying Ben got the little thing into a box. Then we didn't know what to do- we didn't want it here or coming back, outright killing it didn't appeal, so in the end Ben walked down the street and when he got to the corner he saw a big fat cat so he tossed it in that direction. Now we have to have someone come out to make sure we don't have any other "friends" living here.
Evan fell and needed 3 stitches in his head. The kids were playing out back - using the hose and just running around. He was done and wanted to be wrapped up in a towel. I did too good of a job and he tried to take too big of a step and face planted on the sliding glass door track. He is an amazing kid I tell ya. He cried for less than 3 minutes I think. Then was telling me that he was ok and "I got blood on my head mommy"- but you see at times he uses a typical little kid voice, others he deepens it dramatically and talks really gruff. That is how he would say it. Ben trucked him off to the ER and he came home 3 hours later with 3 stitches. In the mean time we had some friends who were up for the weekend visiting family come over for a visit. This is another long time friend- I knew her in high school, but we really became friends in college. They have an almost 3 year old boy. The kids had a blast playing again and I had the pleasure of another good chat with a friend. Evan went on with life as though nothing had happened. Though he would occasionally let anyone nearby know that he had an "owie on my head".
I just orded two books off amazon- one is the book Jenny mentioned in a recent post. That post has been on my mind often lately- as I notice how often I caution my children. Apparently it matters not since I said nothing to poor evan and let him fall flat on his face! Really though both of us seem to tell them they are going to .....whatever..... Anyhow- I got How Children Fail so I can possibly make some changes- or not. heck my kids have each had a trip to the ER- all around the age of 2. Wonder if Olivia will follow the pattern.
Re: Emma and her locked door. I talked to our ped about it- her main concern was the same as mine (and some of yours). Fire. However she too concluded that the fire might be more likely if we let her have free range. She did give me some ideas though. I have been thinking a lot about it and have decided to try a few things. First of all I am going to buy a clock for her room. I want her to stay in her room until 7 am or until I let her know I"m awake. I am going to put a sign on her door at her eye level reminding her of this rule. I am going to come up with some sort of positive reward for doing so at least until it becomes more or less a habit for her. But for now- she is locked in. I am hoping ot be able to get a clock in the next week.
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